David Schoen, left, and Bruce Castor will lead the defense team of former President Donald Trump.
Photograph:
From left: Alan Diaz / Associated Press; Dan Gleiter / The Patriot-News / Associated Press
Former President Donald Trump said that two new lawyers will conduct his defense in his Senate impeachment trial after his previous lawyers left the team just over a week before the trial began.
David Schoen and Bruce Castor will lead the team, Trump said in a statement on Sunday, adding that Schoen was already working with the team. Trump said that both lawyers believe the impeachment is unconstitutional, since Trump is no longer president.
Trump’s second impeachment trial is set to start in effect the week of February 8.
Mr. Schoen is a lawyer who has already represented Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser.
Mr. Castor is a former district attorney in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Her brother Steve served as a minority lawyer in Trump’s first impeachment investigation.
Former Trump defense lawyers – South Carolina lawyers Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier – made a mutual decision, said a person familiar with the matter on Saturday. The person refused to give a reason for the matches.
The Democratic-led House in January voted to impeach Trump for the second time, claiming that he encouraged a crowd to invade Congress to prevent lawmakers from certifying President Biden’s electoral victory. While 10 Republicans joined the Democrats in the House impeachment vote for Trump, Democrats in the Senate face a greater chance of persuading 17 Republicans to join them in the vote to condemn.
Mr. Trump did not accept any responsibility for the Capitol revolt and denied any wrongdoing.
Trump faces a more complicated path to build a defense team than in his first impeachment trial, when he had the White House Council Office and a robust personal legal team behind him. His personal lawyers, Jay Sekulow, Jane Raskin and Marty Raskin, made it clear that they did not plan to defend him a second time, according to people familiar with the matter, as did former White House lawyer Pat Cipollone and his deputy, Pat Philbin.
Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at [email protected]
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Published in the February 1, 2021 print edition as ‘Trump Taps Two Defense Lawyers.’